


The Wink

by TintedPink



Series: Lysa Does Something Stupid [11]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, But not on purpose, M/M, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Pre-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Pre-Captain Marvel (2019), This was written before endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2020-02-27 13:32:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18740047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TintedPink/pseuds/TintedPink
Summary: Tony Contemplates the wink when he runs out of things to hate himself for.





	The Wink

**Author's Note:**

> Angsty Endgame Prediction that... came true? But not really? But kind of. Technically it's kind of Endgame Spoiler, but like I said, written before Endgame. We were all pretty sure this was how they were gonna fix this, though, so...
> 
> This was written before both Endgame and Captain Marvel came out. I still haven't seen Captain Marvel.

Tony doesn’t really have time to process the wink in the hours before half the world disintegrates. He pulls a face because he can’t believe a wizard had the audacity to wink at him, but then he moves on, because there are aliens, and all of Tony’s biggest fears are coming true, and it’s not the time for wizard winks.

Once the kid is dead, and Strange and nearly everyone else on Titan is dead, Tony can barely think about anything, let alone the stupid wizard’s wink. They have to get back to earth, but Tony isn’t sure they’ll make it. He loses himself in a spiral of despair, wondering if Pepper is still alive, Rhodey, Happy, Steve, fucking Steve. He hopes that self-righteous asshole is alive, because at least he’ll probably be doing something. Tony chased a donut into space to save a wizard’s magic necklace and failed. He left earth undefended. He left for no reason. Maybe if he hadn’t been there Strange wouldn’t have given up the stone, maybe Peter would still be alive. At least Tony would be on earth and not floating around in the empty nothing of space hoping to find earth on no fuel and no food or water to speak of.

Tony thinks Pepper would have liked Strange, stupid wizard wink included. He was a weird dude, sure, but he had a lot of wit. He was quick to fire back in a way Pepper just didn’t, and Tony loved Pepper, loves Pepper (she has to be alive), but Stephen was just different. In the darkest corner of his mind he imagines bringing a wizard home to his fiance and telling her that he wasn’t a poly relationship now. Somewhere deep inside he thinks maybe Pepper would be cool with it. She’d whip the winking wizard into shape at least, same way she (kind of) had Tony. The three of them would have been good together, in a weird complimentary way. With Pepper’s business mind, Tony’s mechanical bend and Stephen’s magic they could probably have covered any kind of possible emergency between the three of them. That thought makes Tony smile, but it’s so grim that it feels more like a silent sob.

He contemplates the wink in his darkest, most disconnected moments, when he just can’t bear to think about how much he’s failed or how much he’s lost anymore. Tony has dated people for doing a whole lot less than winking at him.

“Tony Stark.” A female voice calls over the alien radio that’s been dead for days but is now somehow magically working. “Tony Stark, if you’re alive please respond.”

Tony scrambles for the communication, using what strength he has to go as quickly as he can manage. “I’m here. It’s Tony Stark. Who is this?”

“I’m… a friend. Nick Fury sent me. Requesting permission to board.”

“Permission granted, but we aren’t exactly fit to receive company.” The air was really getting too thin for any more people.

“I may have something for that. Is it just you there?”

Tony’s chest aches, because it shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be just him and a weird blue woman, but it is. It’s just the two of them on this hell ship cum gravesite, and it hurts to think about all the people missing. About a spider boy and a wizard who should _be there._

“Just me and one passenger.”

“Alright. Boarding now.”

And once again Tony has to push aside the wink, the wizard, the squashed potential and the lost kid. He puts it all aside because if Nick Fury sent this woman she was going to get him back to earth, and once he got to earth he had some goddamn Avenging to do. The wink would just have to wait.


End file.
